Schuyler Parsonnet
Mr. Runowski
3/4/13
Blindly BelievingDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick, takes place in 1992 after World War Terminus caused much of Earth to become unlivable. Do to the lack of space that Earth now has to support the population, the United Nations urges people to emigrate to Mars. There they will be given an Android servant and an escape from their previous lives that is war. The remaining population on Earth live in decrepit, radiation filled cities where the radiation most likely renders them mentally handicapped, otherwise known as chicken heads, or unable to reproduce. Although Earth is decaying, the androids are still willed to return to earth so they can become free and not enslaved to humans. To do that however, they must kill their masters and, due to the fact that androids cannot feel empathy, do this frequently and without guilt. When the androids come to Earth however, they are known as murderers and it is the job of the bounty hunters such as Rick Deckard to kill/retire them. It is this kill or be killed mantra that brings the people looking for someone to believe in, someone to empathize with. Empathy is the religion of the people (humans). The leader of this cult like religion is a man named Mercer who controls an “empathy box”. This “box” gives people the false sense of empathy through feeling the emotions that Mercer has himself. Through the “box” the people become united behind one central emotional tank, the slow death of Mercer. Later in the book however, it is shown that Mercer is actually just an actor and the scenes that people see of Mercer dying are all staged. Mercer’s made up religion begs the question does the meaning behind religion have to be true or is the fact that there is something that unites people all a religion needs to be. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick shows through the way in which Deckard portrays Mercer at the end of the novel, the...

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...population has emigrated to mars, technology has advanced very much and they have androids that serve as their personal slaves.
• The main character is Rick Deckard, he is a bounty hunter that works for the police and hunts down escaped androids to retire them (what basically means kill them).
• In this book Rick Deckard has to hunt down 5 escaped nexus-6 androids, these are a new kind of androids that are much more advanced then any other type of androids. They look exactly the same as humans and are equally smart or smarter.
• During this hunt for the androids Rick becomes confused about humanity and empathy and has a crisis of faith in the human ethics.
• Besides Rick Deckard there is one other big character and this is john Isodore. He is a special or a chicken head (this means that he is mentally challenged as a result of the radioactive dust).
• He ends up giving shelter to the remaining three nexus-6 androids (the other two are dead). When the final showdown comes and Deckard is going to retire the last three androids his path crosses with the path of Isodore.
Themes
• Empathy as a means to determine whether a life has value or not: this is by far the biggest theme of the novel; it keeps coming back in every aspect of the story. Our main character, Rick Deckard, defines the human nature and the meaning of life according to...

...Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the androids.
The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, where the Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by Nuclear War during World War Terminus. Most types of animals are endangered or extinct due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status, but what is emphasized more is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal.
Deckard is faced with "retiring" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, the latest and most advanced model. Because of this task, the novel explores the issue of what it is to be human. Unlike humans, the androids possess no empathic sense. In essence, Deckard probes the existence of defining qualities that separate humans from androids.
The book's plot served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner.
Setting
DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep? takes place in 1992 (2021 in later editions), years after the radioactive fallout of World War Terminus destroyed most of Earth. The U.N. encourages emigration to off-world colonies, in hope of preserving the human race from the terminal effects of the fallout. One emigration incentive...

...DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep?
By Phillip K. Dick
TO MAREN AUGUSTA BERGRUD AUGUST 10, 1923 — JUNE 14, 1967
AND STILL I DREAM HE TREADS THE LAWN, WALKING GHOSTLY IN THE DEW, PIERCED BY MY GLAD SINGING THROUGH. Yeats
AUCKLAND A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE KING OF TONGA IN 1777 DIED YESTERDAY. IT WAS NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD. THE ANIMAL, CALLED TU'IMALILA, DIED AT THE ROYAL PALACE GROUND IN THE TONGAN CAPITAL OF NUKU, ALOFA. THE PEOPLE OF TONGA REGARDED THE ANIMAL AS A CHIEF AND SPECIAL KEEPERS WERE APPOINTED TO LOOK AFTER IT. IT WAS BLINDED IN A BUSH FIRE A FEW YEARS AGO. TONGA RADIO SAID TU'IMALILA'S CARCASS WOULD BE SENT TO THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM IN NEW ZEALAND. Reuters, 1966
ONE A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised — it always surprised him to find himself awake without prior notice — he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then groaned and shut her eyes again. "You set your Penfield too weak he said to her. "I'll reset it and you'll be awake and — " "Keep your hand off my settings." Her voice held bitter sharpness. "I don't want to be awake." He seated himself beside her, bent over her, and explained softly. " If you set the surge up high enough, you'll be glad...

...physically, he is described as a bounty hunter with the San Francisco Police Department. In the exposition, Rick is a selfish, self-seeking cop who sees no value in android life. This specific attitude towards androids is also supposed to be the attitude of androids towards other androids, so in the climax of the story the characterization is questionable as to whether or not Rick is an android with embedded false memories. Throughout the story Rick has a strong desire to own and care for an animal, but his income won’t allow it. By the end of the novel, his experiences have caused him to develop empathy towards androids and all things that represent living things. Rick uses the Penfield Mood Organ, which allows the user to dial a desired emotion, to dial up emotions according to schedule that will keep him productive. On the other hand, his wife Iran Deckard chooses the depression emotion. She has deep empathy towards humanity for the depression and sadness others are experiencing, and she knows this because she devoutly follows a religion called Mercerism in which she can share emotions with others. She is the most consistently empathetic character in the novel, because even when she makes the decision to leave the depression towards the end of the novel, she still musters up the empathy to care for an electric toad as if it were real in order to...

...itself changes in “DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep?” by Philip K. Dick. In the novel “DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep?” by Philip K. Dick the only humans left living on earth are able to prove superior social status with the ownership of an authentic animal. The owners begin a relationship with animals because they symbolize what’s left of mother-nature in which heightens an individual’s rank.
The protagonist in the novel is Rick Deckard who is known as a bounty hunter. Since there is little life on earth he owns an electricsheep, but his neighbor Bill Barbour owns a Percheron Colt. In the novel Deckard beliefs:
Humans are able to radiate their social status through living animals. In the novel owning an animal is essential because there rare and significant in comparison to modern times when we take animals for granted. One of the main themes in the novel is empathy and they seem to only have it towards animals. Since they have killed off possibly all living things they are trying to grasp the little life left on earth. Having the possession of a real animal is seen as an economic gain. Rick Deckard is not too fond of his electricsheep because it’s not real and he does not feel he could feel empathy for and electricsheep.:...

...more human. Androids and robots are supposedly unable to feel that empathy because it is something that can only be found within the human mind. In the novel DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep? by Philip K. Dick, the main character Rick Deckard deals with the question of whether or not androids have souls or feelings This is a huge part of the novel and really drives home the theme and questions asked. In the movie Blade Runner, which is the movie counterpart to DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep?, the plot has more to do with Deckard and Rachael’s relationship as well as Deckard retiring the androids. The movie completely does away with the empathy and souls of the androids. The main difference between DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep? and Blade Runner is that while the novel emphasizes empathy and the android’s feelings, the film is more about Deckard finding and retiring androids.
In the novel, Rick Deckard makes a drastic change as a character. He grows and develops throughout the entire novel. In the film, Deckard basically stays the same from beginning to end. In the beginning of the novel, Deckard does not think much about hunting down and retiring...

..."For the Sake of Humanity"
Comparative Essay :
Brave New World to Nineteen Eighty-Four and DoAndroidsDream of ElectricSheep?
The term "dystopia" aptly applies to all three of these novels in that each story is set in a future where society is less attractive than it is now. All three books are prefaced with a cataclysmic event that results in a dramatic change in society to address and avoid the perceived problems of present-day. Although each author takes a different approach to the solution, their worlds have striking similarities. Their underlying message is the same: mankind will dehumanize humanity in the name of humanity.
In Huxley's Brave New World (B.N.W.), the cataclysmic event that rocks society is the "Nine Years War, the great Economic Collapse" (Huxley, 43). This is the historical turning point where "there was a choice between World Control and destruction" and the utopian society of B.N.W. is born, or rather, it is "hatched". In this world, reproduction is a matter of technology. The family unit and marriage relationships are abolished: "Everyone belongs to everyone else" (Huxley, 38). Sex is for pleasure only, and reproduction is mechanical. The population is grown in hatcheries, genetically manipulated and heavily conditioned, so that they will mature into perfectly content, contributing members of their specific social caste. The Director of the Central London...

...Elements of Religion
James Morales
REL-133
April 17, 2013
Joseph Becker
Elements of ReligionReligion is a way of life for much of mankind, and though all religions are not the same, do all religionsdo the same thing? Can religion be considered as a way to unite mankind, or viewed as a way to segregate them. Lines are drawn by religions even though many look to religion as a way of life. To join again is the linguistic meaning of the word religion. To search or find the divine or sacred is what drives mankind to follow religion in all its shapes and forms. From Christianity to Buddhism, to indigenous religions such as the Native Americans, or Igbo tribes of Africa, while studying religion what components will be deemed critical to the composition of a religion, and what issues will be faced while studying what a religion does, and how. What are some of the ways a religion will honor the sacred, to include different rights of passage in a religion. (Malloy, 2010)
The basic concepts of religion seem to bind most religions together. There are eight all together, the belief system, community, central myths, ritual, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expressions, and...